The Ken Kennedy Institute's January Member of the Month: Vladimir "Vova" Braverman, Victor E. Cameron Professor of Computer Science. Prior to joining Rice, Vova was an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Johns Hopkins University, with the secondary appointment in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. At Johns Hopkins, he was a member of Algorithms and Complexity group, the Johns Hopkins Mathematical Institute for Data Science (MINDS), the Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science (IDIES) and the Machine Learning group. He's also served as a Visiting Researcher with Google Research.
Vova’s research interests include efficient sublinear algorithms (such as sketches and coresets) and their applications to data science, machine and deep learning, systems and networks, physics and astronomy, computational genomics, oncology and radiology. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award, Google Faculty Award and Cisco Faculty Award.
How do you explain your research in one sentence?
My current research focuses on building efficient algorithms for computational healthcare.
How does your work impact the community at large?
I believe that, in the post-Moore law era, algorithms can bring tangible and verifiable improvements to
computational medicine. For example, in our ongoing collaboration with UT Health we use efficient data
structures, called coresets, to significantly improve landmark classification in radiological images.
What kind of collaborations are you looking for at Rice and within the community?
I will be excited to collaborate on real-world computational problems, especially in restricted or noisy
environments with limited resources.
How do you see computation and data advancing in the future?
I think that data and computation will be an inherent part of almost any decision-making process.
How do you see the Ken Kennedy Institute supporting you and/or your research?
Ken Kennedy Institute is a fantastic place to meet great people. I am looking forward to attending many events, interacting with other Ken Kennedy members and finding new exciting collaborations.
What is your favorite book?
I love many books! One example is Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque.
Do you have any words of inspiration would you like to share?
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Learn more about Vova here.
